Of all the jewelry names we use without thinking twice, “tennis bracelet” might have the best backstory. Because before it became one of the most ubiquitous pieces in a jewelry box, it was simply a diamond line bracelet until one very famous tennis match gave it an entirely new identity. 

Long before it became famous on the court, the tennis bracelet was simply known as a diamond line bracelet, and jewelers had been making them since the early 20th century. But it was the Art Deco era - the age of platinum - that turned them into incredible little feats of jewelry engineering. Platinum was strong enough to build finer settings and workable enough to expose more of the diamond and use far less visible metal, so each setting could connect into a bracelet that articulated beautifully around the wrist.

That flexibility is what separates a great tennis bracelet from an average one. Every stone is individually set into a structure engineered to bend and drape, so it hugs the wrist rather than sitting stiffly on top of it - and the best ones hide that engineering so well; all you register is one continuous line of sparkly diamonds. The better the craftsmanship, the less you notice it. That's exactly what makes this jewelry box staple so compelling!

So, how did this very formal-sounding “line bracelet” acquire its much sportier name? Enter women's professional tennis player (top ranked women's tennis player) Chris Evert and one very well-documented jewelry mishap.

Evert was already doing something I find incredibly chic: she played professional tennis in her diamonds! At a time when jewelry was still largely treated as something you put on for dinner, a party, or a special occasion, she was simply wearing her diamonds the way so many of us wear them now: all of the time.

Then, during the 1987 U.S. Open, the clasp on her bracelet broke mid-match, and the bracelet came off her wrist. Play stopped while she searched the court for it, the story made headlines, and everyone wanted to know about the diamond bracelet Chris Evert wore on her wrist (flung onto the court/ lost mid match).

The story also became a very public reminder of the least glamorous but most critical part of any diamond bracelet: the clasp. A secure box clasp, ideally paired with a safety catch, is what actually keeps the piece on your wrist, and it's exactly why we take clasp construction as seriously as we take the stones themselves.

But taking the clasp seriously doesn't mean it has to stay purely functional. One detail we especially love adding on our tennis bracelets is a diamond or gemstone set right over the clasp itself - a little surprise that turns the closure into another opportunity for the bracelet's visual rhythm to continue, rather than a place where it stops.

Chris Evert wasn't dressed for a special occasion - she was just playing tennis in her diamonds, which is exactly how I think they're meant to be worn. Which is why (new start to sentence) we don't make one tennis bracelet - we make a dozen versions of the idea across our ready-to-wear and bespoke designs. Classic round brilliants for the purest expression of it, mixed shapes and colored gemstones for something with a little more edge, every metal from platinum to blackened gold depending on the mood you're after, half-bezel settings when you want extra security and a totally different silhouette on the wrist. (the tennis bracelet is not a one trick pony- T this up in the beginning a little better)

A hundred years of platinum settings and articulated links, and what we remember is one bracelet falling off mid-match. It's kind of perfect because a great tennis bracelet was never meant to be admired from a box. It was built to be worn hard, worn often, and worn without a second thought. Chris Evert just happened to prove it in front of the whole world!